There doesn’t appear to be any hope on the horizon for community groups that may have been eyeing the vacant Kellman property next to Sammamish City Hall as a possible meeting or storage space.

The city purchased the large house and 9.37 acres of surrounding land from Sanford Kellman for $3.25 million in August 2006, for possible use a maintenance and storage facility.

But in 2008, the city decided the building was not appropriate for such a facility, and the house has remained empty and unused ever since.

At the Sammamish City Council’s annual retreat last week, what would be done with the Kellman property was one of the many items on the agenda as the council, the city executive and senior staff discussed issues that would need to be addressed in 2010 and beyond.

City Manager Ben Yazici told The Reporter on Monday the decision had been made to leave the property as it was for the time being.

He also said the property would not be made available for use by community groups, largely due to insurance issues, and requirements for parking and making the building accessible to people with disabilities.

The city has received a number of requests from community groups, including the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of Sammamish, to use the building for meetings, or to store equipment.

“We’re just going to leave it for now,” Yazici said. “It’s a beautiful structure – it just doesn’t have a municipal purpose.”

Instead, Yazici said, the city would wait and see how the proposed Town Center develops, to get a better idea of what role the property might play.

“We have decided to hang on to it, with the mindset of the value of the land, not necessarily of the structure on it,” he said.

In its decision in 2008 not to use the building as a maintenance facility, council noted “with the new Town Center plan moving forward, there may now be a higher and better future use for the Kellman property than a maintenance facility” and “there has been on-going input from the community that they would rather see the Kellman property used for something other than a new maintenance facility.”

The building suffered minor flood damage in 2009 when the water was turned on as a safety precaution during the Fourth of July fireworks on the commons. It was revealed that pipes had cracked during the previous year, most likely due to the water freezing and expanding.

Sammamish Deputy City Manager Pete Butkus said the water damage would cost less than $1,000 to repair.